Profession of Pain

Social Work Month, March 2024 

“Social Work Month in March is a time to celebrate the great profession of social work.” (NASW)

The time we recognize those in this profession who are dedicating their careers, a large part of their lives, to helping people. 

It is a double sided profession, where we can honor the dedication and grieve the significance behind it. 

When I see social workers gather in community, I do not feel celebration, but a form of solidarity. 

“Yes we are here, yes we are helping people, yes we are doing hard work”

Where would a social worker be if they had not experienced the burdens of cultural, historical, generational, or personal trauma?

During my MSW program I heard someone say, there is a reason people go into social work. To helping professions and mental health fields - something in our life led us there. 

A colleague shared the thought that we don’t choose social work, social work chooses us. 

The field of Social Workers is overwhelmed with people who have savior/hero complexes or survivors guilt. Sometimes both. 

I suspect that if we ask social workers where they would be, if not doing social work, we would firstly probably see a large movement to other helping professions. 

However, there are completely different professions, different dreams, that we would have pursued. 

In my youth, people would encourage me and my siblings to pursue different professions, dentistry, librarian, and social work being commonly mentioned career paths.

When I was in high school I would hear that we can study anything that we wanted to, in this country we can be whoever we want to be and my list of professions expanded.

When I entered university, I went in for computer science and a dream to move towards the world of virtual reality. Many things happened in that time, moments of healing and wellness followed a series of unfortunate experiences within the field of STEM programs. 

That was when I changed to other programs. Psychology, Women and Gender Studies (WGS), Sociology. They resonated with me. 

I considered a minor in fashion design, sewing and clothing creation being a hobby. 

When I told my grandmother about this one, she, who was a seamstress in the past, expressed frustration in why I would do that labor. 

‘No’, she told me, that profession was not for me. I was here, I was meant for ‘greater things,’ to experience the American Dream, 

It was then when I realized the trauma, stress, pain, frustration she carried with her all those years before and how it extended to us. The things she taught me to keep me entertained and out of her hair, she had to do for self preservation and to support her family. A job that kept them fed, and caused her development of chronic pains and memories. It was not the picture of creativity that I had of it. 

I grieved, and I stepped away.

I stepped away from traveling and languages, from movement and creativity, from music, from STEM. 

In the end, I settled into a double major in WGS and Sociology with a minor in Social Work. 

I still had my path open after graduation, exploring where I would go, what I would do. 

At that time, the news was overrun with narratives of “Kids in Cages” at the US border and the anger and frustration rose up. 

I had the thought that I did not have to listen helplessly, there was something I could do to work towards active change. To be part of that process. 

So I applied to a Masters Program in Social Work. 

It was my parts of savior complex and survivors guilt - of me, a bilingual Mexican-American who is documented with the privilege and opportunity to engage.

Helping them would not only be for them, but me. 

We have a list of identities, personal experiences, historical, cultural, generational trauma’s- the list goes on. All of which pile up  and lead us to this profession. 

This profession is rooted in pain, capitalism, and white supremacy. 

We see it in the lists of social concerns taken to the news and then ignored as the heat cools off even as people continue to experience different conditions. 

When we have to live it everyday as the world around us feels to stop caring and moves on. 

Social workers are a community of people who get to experience the depth of human vulnerability and distress.  

It is a big, BIG profession, in the sense that so many roles and jobs are categorized as Social Work. 

Being trauma informed and decolonizing is necessary for prevention of causing further pain and enforcing systems that keep people in harm. 

As for the detention centers who continue to hold people in cages, I now have the opportunity to serve them by doing therapeutic work. Working through the trauma of their experiences. 

This does nothing about the crisis itself. The work depends on them being in those situations. Therapy, advocacy, case management. 

The field of Social Work depends on pain and suffering. 

With each of us, Social Workers can connect as a community in solidarity. 

We can sit with the pain of the necessity of the existence of this profession, and grieve for our clients, for community, for ourselves. 

Trying to work ourselves out of the job because things ‘should not be happening.’ Yet we depend on these jobs for our survival. 

Yet, it is a growing profession. 

The fact it is a growing profession means we are not doing our jobs - and not necessarily at fault of our own.

It is highly important for Social workers, and people in the mental health field to get their own services and processing.

When we come from the pain into Social work, we have our trauma’s and privileges to unpack. 

Do the work to decolonize and take anti-oppressive lenses. 

Do the work to self heal the inner child, the vulnerabilities that were hurt and the parts of us that developed to protect ourselves. 

And do not look away from the future generation of Social Workers. 

The goal is for our younglings to fulfill their dreams of creativity, of interests, and not have to step into the realm of Social Work.